Penske Logistics plans to slash 337 warehouse and other workers in Kinloch, Missouri, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) recently filed. The layoffs come from “losing a contract for warehousing services for supermarket chain Schnucks.”
A trade war with China and possible upcoming tariffs compelled businesses to “continue frontloading inventories, creating more trucking jobs in April, albeit temporarily.” According to the most recent numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, “more than 1,000 truck driver jobs were added to the economy in April. This was the fourth monthly increase in the past six months, which was preceded by a nearly one-year downward spiral.”
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Long-haul truck drivers spend a lot of time on the road and hence face “significant health challenges due to physical and psychological stress — including fatigue, social isolation and time pressures — that impact their overall well-being.” With that being said, studies show that these drivers are “twice as likely as those in other occupations to use tobacco cigarettes as a coping mechanism.”
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Odyssey Logistics has repositioned its global headquarters to southwest Charlotte, bringing with it over 80 new jobs. The move to Charlotte is part of Odyssey Logistics’ strategy to leverage the city’s growing talent pool and quality of life. The new headquarters will be in the Whitehall Corporate Center, where a ribbon-cutting ceremony will be held. Odyssey Chief Executive Officer Hans Stig Moller exclaims: “Our new home in Charlotte is a mutually beneficial development, both for our organization and for the North Carolina business community.”
Truck driving jobs in March rose the most in a month since the beginning of 2022; in addition, “the increase of 9,600 jobs that went along with a larger-than-normal increase in nonfarm payrolls for the country (up 228,000 jobs) was the largest since an increase of 10,400 jobs in January 2022. That month was nearing the end of what is generally considered the strongest freight market in recent history. This month’s increase came during a time when the most optimistic voices are hoping for an improvement by the end of the year.”
The on-again, off-again tariff confusion is leading truckers to feel the impact of said debacle, especially truckers who work to transport vehicles and auto parts between the U.S. and Canada: “while there is still a steady flow of traffic across the Ambassador Bridge connecting Detroit and Canada, including plenty of 18-wheelers, truckers and businesses say uncertainty is still affecting things.”
